"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!" ---D&C 128:19

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy New Year!

Hey family! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Those skit pictures looked awesome.
Well for starters, never try to fly under the radar when it's your birthday. You will have people swoop in and make it the biggest thing haha. I had told one of the zone leaders (who we happen to be staying in the same apartment with) a couple weeks ago that my birthday was today. I was half expecting him to forget and then when he saw me open up the birthday presents he would remember. Well, I was wrong. On Sunday night when they were out teaching he told one of the member families that they work a lot with, and who I know fairly well mostly from being in Paramaribo for awhile now, that my birthday was tomorrow. So. . . they made a recording of them singing the Surinamese version of happy birthday and that recording became the alarm we woke up to today. If that wasn't enough two of the boys from that family came over in the middle of studies and had bought a cake. So much for keeping it a secret. I told them all thanks. It was incredibly nice of them. They are a really cool family, (I don't say that just because they brought the cake either) The mother and the father want to be baptized but have to be married first. They are planning on getting married in 2016. All of them are incredibly nice and it's easy to see that they will make great members.
As far as what I do today, not that much. We are going to the mall to get Elder Buehler some things he wants, maybe I'll buy something as well if I see something. :)
Thank you guys so much for all the Christmas gifts by the way, I really enjoy the music, it's nice to be able to listen to music after going without for awhile.
This week was an awesome week. So many tender mercies from the Lord in finding people. One lady we found on Christmas was really cool. We were biking around trying to figure out what exactly we would do, when we heard her greet us really friendly, almost calling out for our attention. We decided to turn around and see why she was so nice and come to find out, the Lord has been somewhat involved in her life. She told us a story where her son had a car hit him at the age of 7 and it was not looking good for him. She shared how that was bringing him to the hospital, not only wondering if he was going to be ok, but if she was going to be able to pay for all the medical expenses. This part of the story was not so clear, but what we think happened is that elders were in the hospital that day probably visiting a member to give them a blessing, and they got asked to give a blessing to her kid while they were there. The elders left after that and while this lady, her name is "G", was wondering what was going to happen, the nurse came in and told her that her son was good to go home. She recognized that the Lord had healed her child but never really saw the elders again. It was really cool to talk to her and hear that story, she was just so excited.
Another cool miracle from the week was when we went and shared a Christmas message at the same family's house we Skyped at. They had invited a couple of friends and one of those families has a son that is doing a foreign exchange program in the States. This son is staying with a Mormon family while he is there. They take him to church every Sunday. I don't believe in coincidence.
Lot's of other things happened, but it's so much in one email. I love you guys so much. Please tell everyone I said hi! I hope you all have a great new year!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cole Cooper

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Elder Cole Cooper

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Paramaribo, Suriname

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News on Upcoming Mission

Missionaries serving in the West Indies Mission report that in July 2015 the Church will realign the West Indies Mission and the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East Mission to create the Barbados Bridgetown Mission. The new mission will include the following countries/overseas departments: Anguilla, Barbados, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The West Indies Mission will be renamed the Trinidad Port of Spain Mission and the realigned mission will include Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.